ACUP / GUNi · Project participants

Alicia Betts

Alicia Betts is Head of projects at the Catalan Association for Public Universities (ACUP) since 2009 and at the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNi) since 2014. Her main interests and expertise are in the fields of internationalisation of higher education (strategy development and implementation), university governance, funding and management policies, university-business-society collaboration, and is recently working on the social responsibility and impact of universities (responsible internationalisation, responsible research and innovation, cooperation for development). She has been actively involved in the “Internationalisation Plan of the Catalan Public Universities 2010-2015” (2010), the OECD Reviews of Higher Education in Regional Development (Catalonia region), the European Drivers for a Regional Innovation Platform project, the Platform for Knowledge, Territory and Innovation initiative (university-business collaboration). She has coordinated the elaboration of different strategic documents for the Catalan higher education system and reports on various higher education topics. She has regularly collaborated with the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) on several of its research projects regarding the Catalan and Spanish higher education system. She is currently coordinating the new internationalisation strategy for ACUP and is active in several European projects participating with different roles.
She studied Audiovisual Communication and International Relations at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and is a graduate of the European Master in Higher Education (Erasmus Mundus – HEEM, University of Oslo, University of Tampere, University of Aveiro).

Marta Cayetano

Marta Cayetano is a graduate in Audiovisual Communication (UPF) and Translation and Languages (UVIC) and holds a Postgraduate Degree in Strategic Digital Communication (IDEC- UPF) and a Postgraduate Degree in International Development and Cooperation (Setem-UPC). Marta is currently working as Communication Officer at ACUP/GUNi at the European project HEIRRI (Higher Education and Responsible Research and Innovation) and has hold different positions in the communication field since 2006, such as account executive in a design studio and press analyst. She is also a current editor and contributor at www.indienauta.com and has volunteered at the communication department at the NGO SETEM and the community developement project Kufunda in Zimbabwe. She was also a trainee at CCCB Barcelona Contemporary Culture Centre.

Josep M. Vilalta

Since 2007 Josep M. Vilalta is Executive Secretary of the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP), association formed by the universities of Barcelona (UB), Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Girona (UdG), Lleida (UdL), Rovira i Virgili (URV) and Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), and Executive Director at the Global University Network for innovation (GUNi). Before he held the following positions and responsibilities: Deputy Director General for Research of the Government of Catalonia, Head of the Evaluation, Studies and University Cooperation of the Government of Catalonia, Head of the Strategic Planning Unit of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair for University Management, Deputy Director of Management of the Laboratori d’Enginyeria Marítima (Ocean Engineering Laboratory) (UPC) and Executive Secretary of the International Centre for Coast Resources. He has lectured in the fields of public management, public policy and university and research management in different universities and centres. He also promoted and coordinated a Master in University Management and Policy.

Francesc Xavier Grau

Non-Executive Director at the Global University Network for innovation (GUNi). Francesc Xavier Grau Vidal is professor of Fluid Mechanics at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Universitat Rovira I Virgili (Tarragona, Spain). He holds a Ph.D. (1986) and a Licence Degree (1981) in Industrial Chemistry, both from the University of Barcelona. His research interests focus on the physics, modeling and control of heat, mass and momentum transfer in industrial flows and in the environment. He is the author of more than 100 research papers and the supervisor of 11 Ph.D. theses, He has been a researcher at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics of the INP-Toulouse (France), at the NASA-Ames Center for Turbulence Research (USA), and at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Stanford University (USA). He has taken an active part in setting up programs educating and informing the general public on scientific issues, and has been involved in University-Society and Industry-Society relations, including coordinating the Dow-Tarragona Community Advisory Panel. Between 1993 and 2000, he was director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of URV, and from 2000 to 2006 served successively as vice-rector for Infrastructure and ICT, vice-rector for Academic Affairs and Personnel, and vice-rector for Scientific Policy. He has been the rector of University Rovira i Virgili from June 2006 until June 2014; within this period he acted as President of the Association of Catalan Public Universities (October 2011-January 2013) and has been member of the Board (2010-2014) and First Vice President (2013-2014) of the Spanish Rector’s Conference (CRUE).

HEIRRI project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 666004.